SIBCA 2026: Transforming Existing Buildings, a Challenge Reshaping Our Professions

A Sector Facing Increasingly Complex and Interconnected Challenges

Today, the real estate sector is confronted with a complex equation: projects must simultaneously reduce their environmental impact while addressing significant economic constraints, land scarcity, rapidly evolving uses, and the effects of climate change.

Discussions at SIBCA notably highlighted the growing importance of climate adaptation issues. Following a summer marked by several intense heatwave events, many stakeholders emphasized the need to adapt existing building stock to these new conditions through improved summer comfort, the creation of cool islands, increased greenery, better water management, and reduced energy demand. Beyond decarbonization, the challenge now lies in making buildings and territories more resilient to climate change.

These issues, once addressed separately, are now deeply interconnected. Renovating a building is no longer solely about improving its energy performance; it now requires simultaneously addressing energy efficiency, user comfort, economic feasibility, operational continuity, and climate resilience.

An Integrated Model to Address Tomorrow’s Challenges

Faced with this growing complexity, purely technical responses are showing their limits.

The success of a project no longer relies solely on a specific area of expertise or on a building's performance. It depends on the ability to bring together multiple disciplines from the earliest stages of the process in order to develop coherent, sustainable solutions that are adapted to real-world conditions.

This is the principle underpinning the model developed by Patriarche. By bringing together expertise in architecture, engineering, environmental consultancy, urban planning, programming, economics, operations, and project management within a single platform, the agency seeks to approach projects from a holistic perspective.

This approach makes it possible to simultaneously address issues related to user needs, environmental performance, economic viability, and territorial impact, at a time when these challenges are becoming increasingly interconnected.

Research Perspectives on Urban Transitions

This vision is also informed by work carried out alongside the academic community. In particular, Patriarche is committed to supporting the Urban Ecological Transition Economics Chair, founded by Ingrid Nappi with the Louis Bachelier Institute Risk Foundation, in partnership with the École nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-Malaquais. This research and teaching platform brings together expertise from the fields of real estate, housing, architecture, and urban development to explore the conditions for creating more sustainable and resilient cities.

Convictions at the Core of the Agency’s Practice

The reflections developed within this framework echo the key takeaways highlighted during SIBCA. They reinforce several convictions that now lie at the heart of the agency's practice: an architecture that places users at the center of the design process; an integrated approach that combines urban, economic, technical, social, and environmental dimensions; a strong focus on enhancing existing assets through reuse, renovation, and transformation; and a design philosophy based on whole-life costing, taking into account operations, maintenance, and long-term sustainability throughout a project's lifecycle.

A Vision Becoming Reality

This conviction is also reflected in the evolution of the agency's activity.
Today, 60% of Patriarche's projects involve renovation or transformation, with the ambition of reaching 70% by 2030. This trajectory reflects the agency's commitment to making existing assets a major driver of decarbonization.

When an Integrated Approach Transforms Practices

Discussions throughout the exhibition therefore confirmed a trend that has been emerging for several years: transforming existing assets requires bringing together multiple perspectives that extend far beyond the scale of the building itself.

This reality is already reflected in several of our projects:
In Paris, the renovation of UNESCO’s headquarters mobilized expertise in architecture, environmental consultancy, engineering, and economics to improve the energy performance of an occupied heritage building while preserving its identity, particularly the curtain wall designed by Jean Prouvé. The project achieved the BBC Effinergie Renovation certification level while incorporating an ambitious material reuse strategy.

At Gif-sur-Yvette, the CentraleSupélec project illustrates another dimension of this approach. The transformation of the campus addresses large-scale material reuse, environmental performance, biodiversity, and the adaptation of existing assets to new uses.

At Archamps, the ECLA project demonstrates how a change of use can address both territorial and environmental challenges. In a context of significant housing pressure in the Greater Geneva area, particularly for students and young professionals, this former office complex was renovated to accommodate a mixed-use programme combining housing, services, and retail spaces. The project brought together expertise in architecture, environmental consultancy, urban planning, and engineering, while incorporating the reuse of 3,000 m² of materials. It also achieved BREEAM Very Good certification, a first in France for a renovated residential development.

In very different contexts, these projects reflect the same ambition: creating greater value with fewer resources by relying on a comprehensive understanding of the challenges involved.
 

Existing Assets as the Starting Point

This edition of SIBCA confirms a shift in perspective: the transformation of the real estate sector is no longer driven solely by the construction of higher-performing buildings, but by our ability to adapt and enhance what already exists.

Renovating, transforming, adapting, and densifying: these interventions are no longer isolated responses. Together, they are shaping a new approach to design, one that is grounded in the use of existing resources, the adaptability of buildings, and a more systemic vision of projects.

This evolution is gradually transforming real estate professions and opening up a new field for architecture: one focused on more resource-efficient, adaptable, and responsible forms of transformation. It is a dynamic in which Patriarche intends to continue its commitment, placing collective intelligence and an integrated approach at the heart of the design of places and territories.

Credits : ©Patriarche